Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Appearance and Paging Changes; Cleanup
First the most noticeable - I made some changes to the appearance of the blog listing page; it had begun to look crowded/cluttered to me, and the gray background wasn't working. So I changed the background to white, took out all the borders. It definitely opened it up....
Also moved the TradeRating a bit to the right and made it bold. I wanted it to stand out more. If you have interaction with a Bloggertizer member, either as a buyer or a seller, make sure you use the TradeRating to rate the experience. It's the only way we have to police ourselves and make sure the good people get noticed. Please note you can sort blogs by the owners TradeRating. It's an easy way to find bloggers with positive reviews.
With over 1,100 blogs now registered, the paging was starting to get ridiculous, so I revamped it into a simple << Previous : Next >>. Also added listing numbers. That did a lot to clean up the presentation as well.
After all that, I scrubbed the database and deactivated inappropriate entries. For the record:
A Squidoo lens is not a blog
A HubPage is not a blog
An article at eZineArticles (or any other article bank) is not a blog
An author page at Author's Den is not a blog
All this can be summed succinctly: if it's not a blog, then IT'S NOT A BLOG. If you don't know what a blog is, learn.
Two Hand-Dandy-Bloggertizer Tips:
#1 If you contact a blog about getting a link or article, make sure you also click 'save'. It's an easy way to keep track of blogs you contacted (or tried to anyway)
#2 Make sure you aren't filtering emails from webmaster@bloggertizer.com. All alerts from Bloggertizer, including alerts about new messages, password recovery, and EVERYTHING ELSE, comes from this email.
If you have any suggestions for Bloggertizer, please let me know.
Also moved the TradeRating a bit to the right and made it bold. I wanted it to stand out more. If you have interaction with a Bloggertizer member, either as a buyer or a seller, make sure you use the TradeRating to rate the experience. It's the only way we have to police ourselves and make sure the good people get noticed. Please note you can sort blogs by the owners TradeRating. It's an easy way to find bloggers with positive reviews.
With over 1,100 blogs now registered, the paging was starting to get ridiculous, so I revamped it into a simple << Previous : Next >>. Also added listing numbers. That did a lot to clean up the presentation as well.
After all that, I scrubbed the database and deactivated inappropriate entries. For the record:
A Squidoo lens is not a blog
A HubPage is not a blog
An article at eZineArticles (or any other article bank) is not a blog
An author page at Author's Den is not a blog
All this can be summed succinctly: if it's not a blog, then IT'S NOT A BLOG. If you don't know what a blog is, learn.
Two Hand-Dandy-Bloggertizer Tips:
#1 If you contact a blog about getting a link or article, make sure you also click 'save'. It's an easy way to keep track of blogs you contacted (or tried to anyway)
#2 Make sure you aren't filtering emails from webmaster@bloggertizer.com. All alerts from Bloggertizer, including alerts about new messages, password recovery, and EVERYTHING ELSE, comes from this email.
If you have any suggestions for Bloggertizer, please let me know.
Labels: Abuse, Bloggertizer
Monday, June 9, 2008
When a Blog not a Blog, More Cleanup, More Advice
A blog is not a blog when it's nothing more than a blatant advertisement for some new construction condo in Brooklyn, complete with phone number and email listed in the title and description. 'Blog' removed and user blyuma deactivated.
The blog 'Prdanag' is a goner too, for tag abuse. Please be descriptive and accurate with your tags, accurate being very key here. In this case, since I don't think it's a truly blatant abuse like the previously mentioned example, I left vothanhnien's account active and just deactivated the blog. If you're vothanhnien and you want the blog to be active again, email me and ask. Be sure to include the new tags you will use that accurately describe what your blog is about.
I also went through and deactivated blogs with totally inaccurate descriptions. I want to keep hands off as possible, but at the same time I want visitors to Bloggertizer to get the impression that there is some sort of quality control. So if you put as your blog description your blogs stats (PR, Page View, etc), or if you put something so generic as to be worthless ('general blog', 'anything'), guess what? If you guessed your blog as been deactivated, you guessed right!
DO NOT put your blog's PR in your title or description. Bloggertizer checks the blogs PR when it is submitted and updates PR values once a week. You know what? PR's change! And when you brag about your blog being a PR 4, and it's not, it sort of makes you look like a liar.
I recently wrote a post about some things a blogger should do to increase the chances of a drawing the interest of an advertiser. One of the main things I mentioned was using proper grammar. Yes, I'm going to pick on someone. The description for the blog titled 'unik':
Think of your blog listing as an ad. Be concise, be accurate, and be enticing. You are trying to get advertisers interested, not give them a reason to stay away.
Tips:
Use proper case
Use proper spelling
Use proper grammar
Be descriptive and accurate
Just these things alone will set you apart from the majority of listings and raise your chances of attracting the interest of a paying advertiser.
The blog 'Prdanag' is a goner too, for tag abuse. Please be descriptive and accurate with your tags, accurate being very key here. In this case, since I don't think it's a truly blatant abuse like the previously mentioned example, I left vothanhnien's account active and just deactivated the blog. If you're vothanhnien and you want the blog to be active again, email me and ask. Be sure to include the new tags you will use that accurately describe what your blog is about.
I also went through and deactivated blogs with totally inaccurate descriptions. I want to keep hands off as possible, but at the same time I want visitors to Bloggertizer to get the impression that there is some sort of quality control. So if you put as your blog description your blogs stats (PR, Page View, etc), or if you put something so generic as to be worthless ('general blog', 'anything'), guess what? If you guessed your blog as been deactivated, you guessed right!
DO NOT put your blog's PR in your title or description. Bloggertizer checks the blogs PR when it is submitted and updates PR values once a week. You know what? PR's change! And when you brag about your blog being a PR 4, and it's not, it sort of makes you look like a liar.
I recently wrote a post about some things a blogger should do to increase the chances of a drawing the interest of an advertiser. One of the main things I mentioned was using proper grammar. Yes, I'm going to pick on someone. The description for the blog titled 'unik':
its about reference and health information for the profesinal at the medical expecialy for the medcal doktorLooking at the blog itself, I see it isn't an English language blog. That being the case, I think the user made a mistake by not mentioning that, and the description he wrote, while entertaining, is unlikely to generate any business.
Think of your blog listing as an ad. Be concise, be accurate, and be enticing. You are trying to get advertisers interested, not give them a reason to stay away.
Tips:
Use proper case
Use proper spelling
Use proper grammar
Be descriptive and accurate
Just these things alone will set you apart from the majority of listings and raise your chances of attracting the interest of a paying advertiser.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Spam from Ganesh
User Ganesh sent a bunch of spam recently, where he was offering to place a link on his site in exchange for payment.
Look, if you have a well-ranked blog about widgets, and you see another blog about widgets on Bloggertizer, and you want to send the person a message offering to place a link on your site in exchange for a link on theirs or a payment, that's OK. Sending a canned, spammy message out to dozens of users with blogs that aren't even related to yours is not.
Ganesh, your account is deactivated. If you got a message from Ganesh, don't bother replying; he won't be able to log in to get it.
Hi friend. I would like to add your site link in my site. If your interested means Contact me and send me the payment.In other words, he's not looking to buy, he's looking to sell, and while I don't have a problem with being proactive, I do have a problem when the message is spammed out to dozens of users.
Look, if you have a well-ranked blog about widgets, and you see another blog about widgets on Bloggertizer, and you want to send the person a message offering to place a link on your site in exchange for a link on theirs or a payment, that's OK. Sending a canned, spammy message out to dozens of users with blogs that aren't even related to yours is not.
Ganesh, your account is deactivated. If you got a message from Ganesh, don't bother replying; he won't be able to log in to get it.
Labels: Abuse
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
SPAM From User business33
A user going by the user name business33 recently sent a message to dozens of Bloggertizer members using the subject lines:
Bloggertizer is intended for use by legitimate bloggers and advertisers seeking to exchange services. Bloggertizer allows anyone with a legitimate email address to register. This means the community will get that occasional 'bad apple' who will abuse Bloggertizer's free service.
Whenever you get what you consider to be a spam email, use Bloggertizer's contact form to let me know and I will take action.
Thanks-
Edit: Seem business33 got in again and sent some more spam. The login function wasn't screening for active versus inactive due to my commenting out that section while testing. I've fixed that....
CashBlasterProMessage:
Web 2.0
Hi,I've deactivated this individual's account. If you received a message from this member, please ignore/delete it.
Heather Tollison here... You have got to see this - WOW!
I found this new FULL INTERNET UPGRADE technology that is about to upgrade THE ENTIRE INTERNET to Web 2.0 standards and IT'S FREE! FULL Social Networking functionality on EVERY WEBSITE on the internet with a click of a button.
This is going to change the entire Internet OVERNIGHT.
Plus, they are giving away ONE MILLION DOLLARS to spread the word about it - and you can get a share for helping - NO COST!
Check it out at:
http://www.web2wow.com/business33
http://www.web2upgrade.com/home/site.html
Let me know what you think or if you have any questions.
Thanks,
Heather Tollison
Bloggertizer is intended for use by legitimate bloggers and advertisers seeking to exchange services. Bloggertizer allows anyone with a legitimate email address to register. This means the community will get that occasional 'bad apple' who will abuse Bloggertizer's free service.
Whenever you get what you consider to be a spam email, use Bloggertizer's contact form to let me know and I will take action.
Thanks-
Edit: Seem business33 got in again and sent some more spam. The login function wasn't screening for active versus inactive due to my commenting out that section while testing. I've fixed that....
Labels: Abuse
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